Strengthening Peru's Tax Agency
The reforms were remarkably successful: by 1997 internal tax revenue had recovered to 13 percent of GDP-despite an extremely difficult political and economic environment-and 90 percent of large corporate taxpayers surveyed believed that taxpayer se...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/11/2011706/strengthening-perus-tax-agency http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11361 |
| Summary: | The reforms were remarkably successful:
by 1997 internal tax revenue had recovered to 13 percent of
GDP-despite an extremely difficult political and economic
environment-and 90 percent of large corporate taxpayers
surveyed believed that taxpayer services had improved. The
reforms had several key elements: granting the National Tax
Administration Superintendency (SUNAT) meaningful
administrative and financial autonomy, implementing radical
personnel reform, investing in infrastructure and
information technology, and generating public support. The
reforms also forged a new relationship between taxpayers and
the tax agency and committed to improving services. At the
same time, the agency made clear its intention to enforce
compliance with the tax code. SUNAT's experience offers
several lessons for tax administration reform in other
countries. First, the immediate efficacy of SUNAT as a
semiautonomous revenue authority was due to a combination of
several factors, perhaps the most important of which was a
coupling of political leadership with managerial expertise.
But Peru's experience also highlights pitfalls to avoid
for other countries engaging in tax administration reform. |
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